13—21
ἀφελεῖ 6 θεὸς τὸ µέρος αὐτοῦ “dard τοῦ ξύλου τῆς ζωῆς καὶ ἐκ τῆς πόλεως τῆς ἁγίας, τῶν γεγραμμ- ένων ἐν τῷ βιβλίω τούτῳ.] 20. Λέγει 6 μαρτυρῶν ταῦτα °“‘ Nat: ἔρχομαι ταχύ”.
ἁμήν: ἔρχου, κύριε Ἰησοῦ.
21. ἡ χάρις τοῦ Κυρίου ᾿Ιησοῦ μετὰ πάντων.
third time (7, 12): ‘‘ Most assuredly, I am coming speedily”.
493
d In Apoc. Mos. xvi. by over- powering Adam and Eve in temp- tation, the devil robs them “of the garden of delight and of eternal life”.
e For the
f Cf. on xix. 4.
1
10m. Pr.—Of the variants for παντων υΌμων (vg., Aeth.), either παντων των αγιων (Q, min., Me., Syr., S., Arm., And., Areth., Bs.) or preferably παντων (A, am., Lach., Ti., Dust., Ws.) seems more original than των αγιων (9, gig., Tr., ΑΙ., Sim- cox, WH, Bj., J. Weiss, Sw.): for a textual discussion see Nestle’s Einfihrung, 125f. (E. Tr., 157 f.) and Hastings’ D. B., iv. 733.—After Invov, Χριστον is added by Q, min., vg., gig., Syr., Arm., Aeth., Andr.
θεῖναι τετόλµηκεν). They are adapted from Enoch civ. to f. where the author expects his book to be a comfort and joy to the righteous, but exposed to perver- sion and alteration: ‘‘ Many sinners will pervert and alter the words of upright- ness” instead of refusing to ‘change or minish aught from my words’’. Similar threats to careless or wilful copyists es- pecially in lreneus (Eus. Η. E. ν. 20), and Rufin. pref. to Origen’s περὶ ἀρχῶν (cf. Nestle’s Einfihrung, 161 f.). This nervous eagerness to safeguard Christian teaching was part and parcel of the contemporary tendency to regard apos- tolic tradition (cf. xviii. 20, xxi. 14, etc.) as a body of authoritative doctrine, which must not be tampered with. An almost equally severe threat occurs in Slav. En. xlviii. 7-9, liv. (also iii. 3), so that the writer, in this jealousy for the letter rather than for the spirit, was following a recognised precedent (R. $. 125 f.), which was'bound up with a conservative view of tradition and a juristic concep- tion of scripture (Titius, pp. 206 f., Deissm, 113 f.). Rabbinic librarii got a similar warning in that age (cf. Bacher’s Agada d. Tann, i. 254), and Christian copyists, if not editors, required it in the case of the Apocalypse, although apparently they paid little heed to it, for as early as the time of Irenzus there were serious discrepancies in the copies circulated throughout the churches. John had himself omitted a contemporary piece of prophecy (cf. on x. 4). But he explains that he was inspired to do so; this verse refuses to let others deal similarly with his book.